In the new sales and marketing paradigm individuals, consultants, entrepreneurs and small businesses can play on a level playing field with the big boys. Anyone can embrace the power of the internet, couple this with a powerful sales and marketing strategy and bootstrap their way to success on minimal expenditure.
In fact, minimal budgets, far from being a barrier to success, can actually focus your mind on what you really need to do to get more sales. Minimal budgets make you ask the question all of the time, “What will get me the best sales results?” Minimal budgets don’t lure you down the the tempting path of spend, spend, spend!
I had a friend who used to run a small business. He complained a lot. Mostly about lack of funds. “If only I had the funds to spend on advertising I could compete with the big boys.” he used to say.
He didn’t and he went bust.
Since then he has set up a new business with a budget of £0. He even had to use someone else’s credit card to pay the £4.99 per month for his webspace!
His business is flying. Lack of cash focused his mind.
But in today’s new selling paradigm, lead generation is key. If you don’t know how to generate leads then you’re not playing the game properly. Most small business owners and professionals I speak to employ less than 5 methods of lead generation regularly. They rarely review or change their tactics. The average number that people employ is 2 or 3.
This is not enough.
If you want a successful business you need to utilise as many methods of lead generation as you can. You need to monitor the success of these lead generation methods, measure their results and tweak your strategies until you find a mix of 7+ minimum methods that work.
Once you have this mix you need to keep on shaking it up and trying other methods as well.
Here is a list to get you started. I am not saying that all of these will work for you or be practicable in your business or industry because every situation is different. B what they will do is set you off on the right track, get you thinking creatively about lead generation and, perhaps most importantly, they will remove the biggest blocker to your sucess, “But I don’t know what to do!”
Please comment and let me know other ways that have been successful for you and which are your favourite methods out of the ones below. I will share my top 7 with you another day but for now… and in no particular order, here are 98 lead generation strategies to help you grow your business…
- Sales letters to decision makers
- Classified advertisements
- Catalogues in venues
- Flyers
- Leaflet dispensers at tageted locations
- Special reports
- Online catalogues
- Telemarketing
- E-Newsletters
- Traditional newsletters
- Viral marketing
- Ebooks
- Magazine and paper inserts
- Associates and affiliates
- Introducers
- My top 100
- Family and friends
- Joint ventures
- Radio ads
- TV ads
- Position yourself / your company as an expert
- Internet adverts (PPC)
- Press releases
- Yellow pages
- Toastmasters
- Sponsor an award
- Fax marketing
- Business cards
- Chamber of Commerce
- Public relations (PR)
- Attend industry seminars
- Gather and use testimonials
- Offer a free consultation
- Offer a free trial
- Organise an open day
- Promote an industry event
- Give endorsements to prominent people
- Set up a Squidoo lens
- Write articles online
- Form alliances with your peer group
- Create a give away e.g. calendars, mugs, posters…
- Write for the local newspaper
- Syndicate a column
- Write letters to industry magazines
- Conduct industry research
- Send articles to clients
- Advertise on buses, bill boards, cabs
- Speak at the local college
- Panel at professional seminars
- Write a how-to pamphlet
- Offer a finder’s fee
- Do pro bono work for charity with industry links
- Sign your car
- Make up t-shirts
- Do a stunt (e.g. Richard Branson)
- Cross-promote with other businesses
- Enter a contest
- Create a contest
- Direct mail new clients
- Post card promotions
- Business cards
- Networking offline
- Networking online
- Trade shows
- Referrals
- Speeches
- Cold calling – foot
- BNI
- IOD
- Trade shows
- Franchise shows
- Blogging
- Social networking sites
- Christmas cards
- Birthday cards
- Thank you cards
- Add value notes / paper cuttings
- Promotions
- Article writing
- Online forums
- Bill boards
- Freebie pens / t-shirts / mugs
- Teach a class
- Send letters to papers as expert
- Local radio interviews
- Loss leaders
- Free teleclassses
- 3-foot rule
- Podcasting
- Youtube
- Ebay
- Mini-courses
- Two-step paper ad
- Rotary
- Church
- Masons
- Golf club
- Press release
